Board of Directors
Prof. Neissan Besharati is an associate professor (Sustainability, ESG & Impact) at the Gordon Institute of Business School (GIBS) of the University of Pretoria. He is also the co-founder of the socio-ecological cooperative Sustainable Organic Urban Lifestyle (SOUL). He holds a PhD (Public Policy & Development Management) from University of Witwatersrand (South Africa) and a Masters (International Social Development) from the University of New South Wales (Australia). He is a senior research associate at several prominent development think-tanks and visiting professor at a number of international universities. Dr Besharati has extensive experience as an international consultant working with multinational corporations and serving as a senior technical advisor to governments, philanthropies, DFIs, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors and regional organisations. He currently sits on various United Nations, World Bank, African Union and OECD expert groups and advisory committees. He is a globally respected thought leader in the areas of international development cooperation, monitoring and evaluation, impact management, development finance, illicit financial flows, public-private partnerships, sustainability and ESG, education policy, emerging economies and South-South cooperation.
Ms Hamdiya Ismaila has over 20 years experience in Finance and Investments and over 13 years experience in Venture Capital and Private Equity investing. Over this period she has led Venture Capital and Private Equity ecosystem development in Ghana through education and influencing policy and regulatory outcomes for the industry. She is the General Manager of Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF); an Angel Investor and was instrumental in the design of the Ghana Angel Investor Network (GAIN); a Director of the Ghana Angel Fund and a Founder of the Lady Angel Network – which invests in women owned/led businesses; and an Executive Committee member of Impact Investing Ghana (IIGh), the National Advisory Board (NAB) for Impact Investing in Ghana. Ms. Ismaila Holds an Executive Certificate in Private Equity and Venture Capital from Harvard Business School, a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University in the City of New York, BBA (Sum Cum Laude) from Monroe College and an LLB degree from the GIMPA Law School. She is a Fellow of the 2019 Class of the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship and a Member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network. She is also a trustee of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investing; a Council Member for the Ghana Alternative Exchange (a second-tier listing platform for SMEs on the Ghana Stock Exchange) and a member of the Governing Council of the Star Ghana Foundation.
Mr James Karanja is an international tax expert based in Kenya who led the secretariat of Tax Inspectors without Borders, an OECD-UNDP initiative to curb IFF’s in developing countries. Prior to that he worked on tax reforms at the Kenya Revenue Authority, including formulating a national tax enforcement strategy and managing Kenya’s tax transparency. He has represented Kenya at international meetings and addressed conferences. His extensive regional experience includes working with the Tax Justice Network Africa, OECD Development Centre, GIZ and the Global Forum on Transparency Africa Initiative – on initiatives around information exchange and double taxation treaties. He is a previous chair of the ATAF technical committee on BEPS and an assessor with the Global Forum on Transparency in Albania. Mr Karanja is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and a member of the Law Society in Kenya (LSK). He holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy and Management from Strathmore University and an LLB (Hons).
Ms Ndiitah Nghipondoka-Robiati is the Deputy Executive Director at the Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade, serving the trade and commerce department as its head. She received her BSc and MA from the University of Namibia and the University of Sydney respectively. After her graduate studies she lectured at the University of Namibia’s Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and then went to the Agricultural Trade Forum after three years, where she was the Trade Advisor to the agricultural private sector. After seven years of working on agricultural trade policy matters, she established the secretariat of the Namibia Trade Forum as its CEO where she worked for seven years.
She is passionate about the growth at home concept that Namibia is pursuing towards her economic sustainable objectives as well as advocate for the importance of buying local to create sustainable livelihoods and wealth for communities.
Mr Deo-Gracias Houndolo is a Development Economist and got a Degree in Agricultural Development. He works at the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie) as a Senior Evaluation Specialist, and he is the Regional Coordinator of the West African Capacity Building and Impact Evaluation Program (WACIE). He teaches at the University of Abomey-Calavi and at the African School of Economics, subjects related to policy impact evaluation methods, public policy analysis, Data collection in the context of developing countries. Mr Houndolo is a founder of the African Institute of Monitoring and Impact Evaluation of Development Policies Programmes and Project (Le Barometre) which is an innovative initiative that specializes into Monitoring – Evaluation and Digital solutions.
Professor Ajam teaches public financial management at the University of Stellenbosch School of Public Leadership. She is a public policy analyst and an economist with broad experience in the design, analysis and implementation of fiscal policy, intergovernmental fiscal relations and government-wide monitoring and evaluation systems. She holds a Master’s in Business Science from the University of Cape Town and a PhD (Public Management) from the University of Pretoria.
Ms Fudu- Cenenda is Director: Enterprise Development at Avocado vision where she focuses on development of rural entrepreneurs in the green business value chain and township property entrepreneurs. Her previous role as Enterprise development Manager at Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, an Incubation hub for tech and digital startups in Johannesburg owned by Wits university saw her focusing on the digital innovations, including Software, hardware and digital content. She also sat on Investment committees at Wits Commercial Enterprise, making decisions on funding needs for commercialising research and inventions from the university. Her own consultancy specialises in Business Development Services, and Monitoring and Evaluation, particularly for Entrepreneurial and Social Entrepreneurship ventures, as well as ESG. She has vast experience as an investment consultant to pension funds, an international human rights advocate and business development support services to entrepreneurs. Some career highlights include impact analysis done on a women’s entrepreneurship programme in Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia as well as coaching women entrepreneurs in South Africa on behalf of the Graça Machel Trust, as well as a digital transformation programme for women entrepreneurs in South Africa. She holds a B Econ (honours) from Rhodes University and is currently pursuing a Master’s in Management Sciences with the Durban University of Technology, where she is undertaking research on “Gender Balancing strategies for the workplace”. She also holds an Impact Investing certificate from UCT Graduate School of Business and is also an accredited Practitioner-Led Learning Exchange (UK) facilitator in Impact evaluation with the Social Enterprise Academy.
Associates
Ms Gifty Volimkarime Kuug holds an MBA, Certificates from Oxford University (UK), Illinois State University and Harvard Graduate School of Education (USA). She brings over two decades of experience as practitioner in international and humanitarian programmes in areas of youth development, entrepreneurship, sustainable livelihoods, gender, monitoring and evaluation, and human right based initiatives. Ms Kuug is the Project Director for Inclusive Business Sweden – Green Economy Ghana Project and a consulting Country Representative for Crossroads International. Prior to this she was the Country Manager for the EQWIP Hubs Project, where she managed the consortium to build sustainable youth businesses in Ghana, in six countries in West and East Africa and three regions in Ghana. Ms Kuug is the founder of CEED, an entrepreneurship research and data hub, where she serves as a director. She is also a foundering member of Impact Investing Ghana and represents CEED at the Impact Investing Ghana Enterprise Support Organisations Technical working group. She has worked in communities and with organisations in Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda Zimbabwe, and Cameroon, and with a vast range of development finance institutions. Ms Kuug is a mentor with FP2020, Youth Power Africa Transformation Award challenge and a member of the Oxford Impact Measurement Liber consulting work Group.
Dr. Linda Khumalo holds a PhD in Development Studies (University of Witwatersrand) and a Master’s in Industrial Sociology and Labour Studies (University of Pretoria). She is a social researcher with over seven years of hands-on experience conducting monitoring, evaluation, learning (MEL) and policy analysis. She has successfully facilitated evaluation capacity building workshops and actively collaborated on projects developing M&E systems such as with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), seeking to enhance organisational performance management. She has previously worked for the African Centres for Learning on Evaluation and Results (CLEAR), where she facilitated workshops for stakeholders in results-based M&E, parliamentary oversight and advocated for the use of evidence for greater development outcomes. Dr Khumalo has worked in evaluation and performance improvement of development projects and has led social sector evaluations as an independent consultant and through her association with Masazi Development Associates, Secure Africa Consulting and Pan-African Investment and Research Services.
Ms Nthabiseng Tsaonamatsie is the Senior Economist and Head of Research at Pan-African Investment and Research Services (Pty) Ltd responsible for conducting and overseeing commissioned research, and on-going macro-economic analysis for clients. Prior to this she worked at the Human Sciences Research Council as an economic researcher in the Economic Performance and Development unit. Her research interests are growth and development economics, and inequality and growth, as well as panel-data econometrics. While at University of Pretoria she was a lecturer assistant as well as a research assistant.
Dr. Naomi Isabirye is currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she teaches Information Systems Management, Cyber security and User experience. She is also serves as an honorary research associate for Rhodes University (South Africa) in the Information Systems Department, and is involved in research on the Future of Work with the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Applied Data Science. She supervises Masters and Doctoral students while actively building her research publication profile and serving on various committees. Prior to her current role, she was the Head of Information and Communication Technology at OPECS, defining the IT strategy of the organisation and oversee its implementation, security, privacy and compliance for information assets. Naomi hods a PhD in information Technology, A Masters in Information Systems and a BSc in Information technology.
Dr Ted Jackson is a university professor and management consultant specializing in impact management and measurement and ecosystem-building in impact investing, blended finance and gender lens investing in emerging markets in Africa, Asia and the Americas. He has advised the development cooperation programs of Australia, Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom, the Mastercard and Rockefeller foundations, the Caribbean Development Bank, Emerging Markets Impact Investment Fund, German Institute for Development Evaluation, International Development Research Centre, Investing in Women, World Bank, United Nations Environment Program, and UN Women. A former tenured public-policy professor and associate dean at Carleton University, Dr. Jackson currently serves as Senior Fellow at the Carleton Centre for Community Innovation, Honorary Associate with the Institute of Development Studies, and President of E. T. Jackson and Associates Ltd. He also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Sustainable Finance and Investment and member of the Council of the International Evaluation Academy. His recent publications include Evaluating Blended Finance Instruments and Mechanisms, an OECD working paper, and Measuring Women’s Job Quality, for the Overseas Development Institute. Originally trained in adult education and community development at the University of Toronto, Dr. Jackson earned certification as a responsible investment professional (RIPC) from UNPRI and Canada’s Responsible Investment Association.
Ms Mashadi Monaledi holds an Honours in Social Sciences (University of Cape Town, South Africa) and Master’s in Development and Management (North-West University, South Africa). She has been a practicing sustainability practitioner for 13 years and currently runs her own consultancy. Ms Monaledi has worked with mining corporations (Aquila Steel, Glencore, Kudumane Manganese Resources). She has also worked with consulting companies, including; Metago Environmental Engineers, Synergistics Environmental Services, EXM Advisory Services as well as non-profit organisations, most notably, Afrika Tikkun and Infinite Family. She has expertise in Socio-Economic Development, Corporate Social Investment, Social and Labour Planning & Implementation, Social Impact Assessments, Stakeholder Engagement, Public Participation, and Transformation. She currently sits on the Board of Association of Private Providers of Education, Training and Development (APPETD).
Mr Azwimpheleli Langalanga is an experienced consultant, researcher and advisor on international trade, investment law and climate, public law and policy, market entry, foreign policy, domestic economic policy, regulation, trade and industrial policy, economic, commercial diplomacy and illicit financial flows. He has experience in government, think tanks and private consulting firms focusing on mining and climate change policy and has covered various countries and markets in the Southern African Development Community region. He has worked closely with governments, corporate firms listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange including foreign investors, business associations, chambers of commerce and the diplomatic community in Pretoria, South Africa. He has been directly involved in ensuring that barriers to investment were removed by the host governments of South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Swaziland and the broader SADC entailing both a private sector and government approach on investment barriers and attraction. His passion lies in development through international trade and investment and possesses the ability to translate complex policy in trade, investment, diplomacy and law into applicable instruments in both the public and private sectors. Mr Langalanga holds a Master of International Law and Economics, World Trade Institute, from University of Bern, Switzerland; a Master of Law in Labour Studies, University of KwaZulu Natal, Durban, South Africa and a Bachelor of Laws, University of Fort Hare, East London, South Africa.
Ms Nici Palmer has over twenty years of experience in environmental consulting, with a focus during the last decade on the carbon sector and climate change. She co-founded Carbon Calculated in 2008 on the realisation that organisations can manage their environmental impact through the measurement of their consumption and carbon footprint calculations. Since then, she has conducted over one hundred carbon footprint assessments for a wide variety of large and small companies from multiple sectors across South Africa and internationally. She facilitates discussions within organisations, providing insight and support within this complex field with a strategic focus to move clients towards a climate neutral environment. Her experience ranges from carbon reporting and management, partnership building and a comprehensive environmental knowledge particularly around climate change and broader sustainability and ESG. An experienced trainer of Environmental Controlling Officers, Ms Palmer has prepared environmental management projects including Basic Assessment Reports and Environmental Impact Assessments. She completed a BSc Honours at the University of Cape Town in Environmental and Geographical Science and Ocean and Atmospheric Science.
Ms Sitholindlela Mavengere is an Independent Consultancy with extensive experience in social research and evaluation. She is particularly experienced in research and evaluation design and methodology development. She has experience on various projects including education, health, and food and nutrition security for government and private funders. She designed, developed, implemented, and managed or provided technical assistance to the management of the monitoring and evaluation for South African government, non-governmental organisations, and private sector. She has proven experience in the management of research and evaluation projects which include database management of consultants and fieldworkers, research logistics and arrangement of field work. She is also experienced in the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation methods and report writing. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies, a Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation, and a Master of Philosophy in Monitoring and Evaluation. Currently undertaking PhD at the University of Pretoria in Quality Assurance in Education and Training.
Mr Nsizwa Mutasa is a taxation specialist who has worked in academia, tax administration and corporate advisory. He is currently responsible for taxation at Ubombo Sugar Limited in eSwatini (an Illovo subsidiary). Prior to this he was a tax specialist at the eSwatini Revenue Authority responsible for developing and establishing technical training programmes. His regional work includes serving on the expert review panel of the ATAF’s Executive Master in Tax program for senior tax administrators and contributing to the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index. His particular interests are international taxation, tax policy and he has participated in international seminars and conferences in this field. He holds a Bachelor’s in Accounting from Rhodes University and a B Comm (hons) in Taxation from the University of Pretoria.
Ms Pamela Nyikavaranda holds a BSc Honours Degree in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe as well as a postgraduate diploma and a Master’s Degree in M&E from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa. She has 12 successful years of consulting experience in rolling out, coordinating, managing, monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects of various nature. She further possesses vast experience in capacity building development in M&E on Southern African regional forums. She is currently the M&E Consultant for SADC PF on a 5year SRHR programme being implemented in 14 SADC countries. She developed a three year Organisational M&E Plan for Southern Africa Trust for their various programmes implemented within Southern Africa. She is an experienced Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist who has both the qualifications and experience in diagnostics, process, design and impact evaluations as well as building monitoring and evaluation systems for both local and international projects. She is currently one of the M&E Specialist behind the South African DSD Design Evaluation for the Food Parcel Project. She has been an M&E Assessor for Mott MacDonald International Development SA on the YOLO USAID funded programme providing advisory services on interpretation of the Results Framework and Theory of Change to the various NPOs who were mandated to implement the project.
Professor Mehmet Arda taught at the Faculty of Political Sciences, Ankara University from 1972 until 1982 when he joined the United Nations in Geneva. After 25 years of service, he retired from the UN as Director, Commodities Branch at United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). During this time, he was also adjunct professor in the BA, MA and MBA programs of Webster University and European University. He participated in PhD juries at Geneva University. Upon his return to Istanbul, he was appointed Professor of International Relations and Economics at Galatasaray University and retired from there in 2013. Since then he teaches at Koç University. He has participated in numerous international research projects, undertaken consultancy work for the United Nations, the World Bank and the Turkish Government. He has been active at the Global Relations Forum (GIF) and Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM). He is a founding member of SenDeGel, a civil society organization providing development assistance to Least Developed Countries. His areas of particular interest include the governance of globalization, related institutions and participatory approaches; modern international trading system and negotiating processes; roles and responsibilities of states, international organizations, private sector and civil society in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals; international markets, international value chains and the composition, direction and nature of international trade; environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects of business and public administration; environmental and natural resource management, with a focus on market based policies. He has a BA in Economics from Dartmouth College, and a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.
Ms Raesetje Sefala is an AI Research Fellow and a qualified Data Engineer. She holds a Computer Science Master’s degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa) with a special focus on Machine Learning. She has been technically involved in different complex Data Science projects from around the world that involve building innovative solutions while working with world renowned researchers in the field (Prof. Yoshua Bengio, Prof. Rayid Ghani and Dr. Timnit Gebru to name a few). Her focus is in the use of artificial intelligence to solve problems experienced by developing countries; creating and analysing datasets for machine learning use; designing and developing efficient machine learning pipelines for different types of datasets, and contributing to making better data and technologies that serve disadvantaged communities.
Mr Siqhamo Mashologu is a technology expert in the field of data warehousing design and business intelligence with a B. Comm (Economics & Information Systems) from Wits University (South Africa). He has implemented data and business intelligence solutions in a wide range of sectors including financial services, public sector, telecoms, retail and FCMG. Most of his career has been in consulting, having worked with major technology firms such as Accenture, ITB and Microsoft. He has extensive experience operating in SQL, PowerBI, Unix, Tableau, Sybase, Proclarity, IBM, Oracle and other cloud technologies. His career highlights include building data warehouses which have been in use for over 20 years.
Dr André de Mello e Souza is a Tenured Researcher and Policy Analyst at the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), a Brazilian governmental think-tank. He earned a Master’s and a PhD in Political Science from Stanford University, United States. Dr Mello e Souza has previously worked as a Professor of International Relations at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio), Brazil, and at the Brazilian Institute of Capital Markets (IBMEC). He was also a visiting scholar at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. Dr Mello e Souza is one of the founding members of the Network of Southern Think-Tanks’ (NeST) global, Brazilian and Latin American chapters. His main areas of research include the global governance of health, intellectual property rights and international development cooperation; as well as international private aid and South-South development cooperation, with a country focus on the BRICS. He is one of the authors of ‘The Politics of Private Aid’, published in International Organization, of ‘The Palgrave Handbook of Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda’ and several articles and book contributions on these topics.
Ms Seedat holds a Postgraduate Diploma in Development Finance and an MBA specialising in Managing International Organisations from the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa). She has worked in the ESG and impact investment advisory space for 12 years and is currently Executive Director at the Instructional Leadership Institute. She was previously the Director of Risk, Compliance and Special Initiatives for a technology company working on large-scale public health projects. She previously managed a development consultancy group (Greater Capital and Greater Impact) and has consulted for local and international development agencies, including: AMSCO BV, ATMS Foundation, UNDP, Impact@Africa, Stellenbosch University and SAB-ABInBev Foundation. In addition, she is a lecturer on Strategy Management and Leadership Development for MBA and postgraduate students at Stellenbosch University Business School. She has expertise in sustainable development, corporate social investment, impact investing, ESG integration, social impact assessments, and policy development. She currently sits on the Boards of Impact@Africa and the Stellenbosch University Business School Executive Committee of their Alumni Association. She serves on the Steering Committee Member of the Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE).
Dr Navneet Tewatia is a public health professional having experience in multi-sectoral advocacy and high-level engagement with governments and political leaders in improving access to health technologies. He has rich experience across diverse cultures, multinational pharmaceutical companies, trade chambers, parliamentary bodies, and the United Nations. Dr Tewatia is currently the Lead Consultant – Policy & Advocacy (Asia and the Pacific Region), Medicines Patent Pool. He is also Consultant – Equitable Financing with UNAIDS, the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS. Prior to this, Dr tewatia was working with the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance as Associate Secretary General responsible for policy advocacy and government engagement. Earlier, he was working with FIND as Advocacy Officer for a Unitaid supported project on viral hepatitis C in India, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Georgia. He has worked with UNAIDS as Programme Officer for political engagement and was also the Coordinator for Parliamentary Forum on AIDS in India. He has worked at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry in the Biotechnology and Clinical Research industry affairs. Dr Navneet also has experience working with Eli Lilly and Sandoz. He is a pharmacy graduate with master’s in pharmaceutical business management from the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER-Mohali), India. He holds a PhD degree from National Law School, Bengaluru, India.
Ms Alicia Paramanund has attained a Master’s degree in Environmental Law (LLM) through the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and a BSc Hons. in Environmental Management through UNISA. Having worked mainly in the renewable energy sector for over 13 years, she specialises in environmental management with a key focus on renewable energy projects and sustainable development. Ms Paramanund has worked as an environmental assessment practitioner (EAP) for over 7 years, having led and been involved in an extensive list of environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes for various projects. She also worked as environmental; business development; and bid led for several Independent Power Producers (IPPs). Her areas of expertise include business development; environmental regulations and compliance (Renewable Energy, Power, Infrastructure, Mining, Waste); environmental due diligence; project management; design, execution and management of project permitting processes; bid compliance and management; team management; stakeholder interfaces; policy and legislation advisory.
Mr Artemy Izmestiev is working as a Country Economist at UNDP Timor-Leste. He has over 17 years of experience in project management, policy advice and building partnerships with governments, civil society and private sector. He worked with the UN organizations both at the headquarters and in various regions including Africa, Central Asia and East Asia. He has a Master’s degree in Economics from Moscow University and a Master’s degree in European Studies from the Institute “Alcide de Gasperi” in Rome, Italy.
Fazlur brings extensive expertise in agricultural business development, financial advisory, and applied research to his role at PAFDI. His work combines policy insight with field-level implementation, drawing on experience leading agricultural initiatives across South Africa and the continent. He is committed to strengthening evidence-based decision-making, advancing innovative financing models, and building resilient agrifood systems that align with the Addis Ababa Agenda for Action and the Sustainable Development Goals.